Vermont Spring Gardens Persevere Through Early Season Run Of Bad Luck

I gotta ask my fellow gardeners out there: Has this spring so far been especially challenging for you?

Challenging spring in my St. Albans, Vermont gardens
so far, but things are still getting more and more
beautiful as the season progresses.       

I know, I know, the growing season has just barely hinted at starting. We've got an incredibly long way to go. 

This is whiny but the past few weeks have been a little more onerous out there than usual. That April 4-5 snowstorm wrecked two trees on my property that I liked. It could have been worse as other, more important trees I thought might suffer managed to get through that. 

Unlike so many people here in St. Albans, my property suffered minimal wind damage in those horrible  twin wind storms back in January.  Phew, dodged a bullet right?

I shouldn't have been so smug. On April 12, gusty winds took down two large trees, which fell on and shattered into pieces on my largest perennial garden. Not a lot of actual damage, but a huge cleanup. Thank goodness my husband - always looking for a project - sawed up an immense amount of those branches for me. 

Then we just had that freeze. The garden was blooming to early. Thanks to another climate change early spring. Which meant the late April cold snap we just had, which wasn't the least bit odd on a historical basis, caused some tense moments. 

And some nonconsequential but disheartening damage. Some of the daffodils flopped over onto the ground, their stems frozen then thawed into a mush that couldn't support the blooms on top. The little magnolia tree won't bloom this year. The lilac in front of the house has tons of flower buds, but will they bloom now that they've been frozen twice? Stay tune. 

Has anyone noticed the mosquitoes? Or is it just at my place? They first went on the attack here during the Great American eclipse on April 8.  That is incredibly early to see mosquitoes. 

Now there's swarms of them. I've always dealt with lots of black flies this time of year. Mosquitoes are an occasional problem all spring and summer. But where did these swarms come from?  For the first time since I've had this house, way more than a decade, we can't open the sliding glass doors in the living room on warm afternoons. The mosquitoes swarm right in.

I wonder if the warm winter - it never did get below zero - allowed mosquitoes to survive the winter and thrive?

All this is by no means the end of gardening, at least around my house. The daffodils are beautiful, even if a few of them are leaning awkwardly. Everything's greening up nicely, and unless disaster really strikes, it still looks like I have a full spring, summer and early autumn of perennials to enjoy. Hopefully, the pollinators buzzing around out there like this spread, too.

Climate change and invasive species have certainly made gardening more challenging than it used to be in Vermont and pretty much everywhere else.  

What have you experienced in your garden?  Is the weather causing unexpected problems for you? Or have things actually gotten better? Inquiring minds want to know.